Not that politicians are fond of knee-jerk politics, but it's an astounding coincidence that today, the day after Rumsfeld was rushed to Iraq, the Americans have let 250 prisoners out of Abu Ghraib prison.

It's amazing how coincidental well-timed El Busho's master plan is isn't it? I mean to think? That he'd planned to release them today, somehow knowing ahead of time, when the plan was drawn up, that the prisoner abuse scandal would surface and be coming to a head this weekend? Damn - that's amazing.

If he were any less of a president, one might suspect that this is a panic reaction to win voters over and calm the temper of the Arab world, but El Busho has proven to be such a master of military tactics, that clearly this couldn't be the case. It must have been in the "plan" right from the beginning.

Wow. I'm stunned.

And shocked at how the papers and news channels can report this without once touching on the fact that this isn't in any plan (there is no plan) but clearly is a panic reaction. Come on! Do you think we're all retarded or something?

Kuwait and Jordan are now openly criticising the US over the escalating problem in Iraq. Tony Blah is coming under increasing pressure to stop associating Britain with America and pull out.
Aware of its sinking fortunes in the Arab world, the White House has launched a diplomatic blitz. Colin Powell is going to an economic conference in Jordan this weekend. Condoleezza Rice goes to Berlin on Monday to meet with a top official of the Palestinian Authority — a gesture to the Arab world, which is concerned over the Bush administration's pro-Israel policies.

And El Busho? Of course he's not leaving the country. I suspect he'll go for a gentle weekend in Texas.

Michael Berg, the dad of Nick Berg who was beheaded in Iraq, has directly El Busho and Rumsfeld for his son's death. And I can't say I blame him. No bloody wonder he's angry. Apparently he said "My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this."

Right on.

Berg has attacked El Busho and his administration for its invasion of Iraq and its sponsorship of the Patriot Act (which gives sweeping powers of surveillance to the federal government.) He described the Patriot Act as a "coup d'etat." He added: "It's not the same America I grew up in."

I'm glad he's speaking out. Especially as the government is now claiming his had never been held by American authorities in Iraq. Interesting given that Berg has a written statement from the State Department in Baghdad telling him that his son was being held by the military. And he was visitted by the feds. And he had this email:
"I have confirmed that your son, Nick, is being detained by the U.S. military in Mosul. He is safe," from Beth Payne, the U.S. consular officer in Iraq on April 1st.

After the untimely demise of the rather nice Canadian Maple tree in our back yard, we got a call yesterday from the arborist. He thinks he's found a good replacement - a forest pansy redbud tree. For about $400 we can get about a 9ft tree which is a good start.
God knows we need some shade now the old tree has gone :-(

El Busho's numbers are down again.
According to Reuters he's now in the danger zone and is tracking the same losing trend as the previous three presidents who had this problem. Most notably, Bush Snr.
No president has ever been re-elected when his approval rating fell below 50% in the election year. El Busho is down to 46%. If they can get the electronic voting machines removed, he's going to have a hard time rigging this election.

The fund considers that the (announcement) yesterday by Saudi Arabia to propose to the rest of the OPEC-producing countries an increase in the production is a good step to satisfy what is clearly strong demand.

The shiat is going to hit the fan now. Apparently, a video posted on an Islamic militant web site shows a group affiliated with al-Qaeda beheading an American, saying the death was revenge for the prisoner-abuse scandal.
Can El Busho keep himself from all-out world war III now? Despite the fact that he invaded a country for no reason and has caused the deaths of thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of Americans?

Man there was a lot of chlorine in the pool this morning. I'm having trouble focussing on my screen ....

Meanwhile, Rumsfeld said yesterday that the Geneva Convention didn't apply "precisely" to Iraq. Donald, mate, that's like being "a little bit pregnant" - it's a mutually exclusive idea. Either the Geneva Convention does apply to Iraq, or you're a war criminal. Which is it?

I just spent a few minutes reading ginmar's blog. This entry was truly heartening - to see that the troops do realise what El Busho is doing to them....

So I don’t know. I know that we’re fast approaching six hundred dead soldiers, most of them dead after the war ended. I think the Bush family has an awfully bad habit of not knowing when to end a conflict, and they do it too fast. Sometimes you have to keep it going just to make sure that it is well and truly ended. Bush Sr., wanted the first Gulf War to be referred to as a hundred-hour war, because the ground campaign lasted just a hundred hours. He turned his back on the fourteen out of eighteen provinces that rose up against Saddam, and now we’re paying the price. The Iraqi people have been paying it for the past twelve years, and now maybe it’s come due for some higher purpose. Those casualty figures only count American soldiers, by the way. I don’t believe that the current Administration cares about those soldiers, though. Talk is cheap. This Administration talks a lot about us, asks a great deal of us----and does nothing but make things harder and harder for us. Cutting VA benefits? Cutting the size of the force so that more work can be asked of fewer soldiers? Their arrogance astounds me. Ask a group of soldiers whether they’ll re-enlist after this deployment, and half will say no, where three years ago, most of them would have said yes. Bush ignores the rumbling from the troops who won his war---and more importantly, he ignores those who died while winning it, too.

Once again, the Bush Administration in action -- making the wrong decisions, for the wrong reasons. This time they've instructed Halliburton to cut off all email and internet access for the troops in Iraq for the next 90 days. I guess they didn't like the whole "free speech" thing where troops got to talk to their families. Maybe those incriminating pictures of prisoner abuse came in email? That would be a coincidence.
El Busho is obviously defending the troops "freedom" to communicate with their loved ones.
Ginmar, over at livejournal was posting a blog on his service in Iraq. I guess that will go by the wayside now.